With the rapid development of network technology, more and more products or business forms appear, and the needs of corporate customers are deepening. Portal or service provider should cooperate more closely with downstream partners in the industrial chain in order to seize the opportunity in the fierce competition in the future.
Judging from the closeness between marketing channels and service providers, the marketing channels of general service providers can be divided into three levels: the first level is the core marketing channels, which mainly refer to the core agents or exclusive agents in major regions; The second level is the secondary marketing channel, which mainly refers to the distribution under the core agent or exclusive agent channel; The third level is the peripheral marketing channel, which mainly refers to the specialized marketing personnel and agents all over the country.
The loyalty of marketing channels comes from the amount of benefits that partners get through cooperation at present and the expectation of future cooperation prospects. Therefore, this hierarchical marketing channel is in an unstable state except for the core layer, and the second and third-level channels are not loyal at all. The lower the channel loyalty, the lower the control. The main favorable measures are: strengthening the construction of core marketing channels, comprehensively helping to improve the market share and expansion speed of core channels in the region, including preferential channel policy support; Strictly divide the market regions by regions, avoid conflicts of business and interests between core channels, and minimize internal friction; While building and expanding the overall marketing channels in an all-round way, we will constantly promote the upgrading of secondary and peripheral marketing channels and improve their loyalty.
By increasing investment in marketing channels, strictly selecting partners and improving the overall marketing system structure, the loyalty and control ability of channels can indeed be enhanced, but service providers can further integrate channel resources, especially increase channel management and policy support, which will achieve greater results.
Management Analysis of Network Marketing Channels
In essence, the upstream service providers manage the marketing channels through a series of management means and methods, such as increasing cooperation among channel members, preventing conflicts among channel members, and encouraging the development of channel members, so as to achieve the goals of harmonious relations among channel members, enhancing channel sales ability, and optimizing the function and efficiency of the whole marketing system.
At the beginning of 2004, a portal website awarded a powerful online marketing service provider in Shanghai as the exclusive distributor of its search engine in Shanghai. The two sides have jointly created an engine channel model, which has been extended to the whole country and standardized the entire search engine distribution channel. It can be seen that channel management is directly related to the function and service quality of channel marketing activities. Marketing channel management focuses on channel policy management and channel incentive management.
The role of channel policy in regulating and guiding channel operation can not be ignored. Without a good channel policy, there will be no successful channels. Channel policy is actually related to the healthy development of the whole channel.
As far as service providers are concerned, their marketing channel policies mainly include market division policy, flagship product promotion policy, promotion policy, price system policy, customer service policy and channel membership sharing policy. These policies actually form a whole marketing policy system.
The key of channel strategy management lies in two points. First, formulate scientific and effective channel management policies to ensure the high-quality operation of the entire marketing system. Second, all marketing channel members must resolutely implement the established policies to ensure smooth channels and consistency of external services.
Portal or service provider should first clearly understand that channel agents are independent commercial entities with their own goals, interests and strategies. The agent is the purchasing agent of the customer first, and then the sales agent of the portal or service provider. Only when corporate customers are willing to buy online marketing service products, agents are interested in operating. Therefore, upstream service providers should take necessary measures to conduct reasonable channel incentive management according to these characteristics of agents, so as to optimize the whole marketing system:
Distribute profits reasonably according to the role of agents in the marketing system. In order to improve the enthusiasm of agents, we can formulate a graded rebate system that is convenient for quantitative management and increase the incentive for those who complete large-value business;
Help agents improve their own development capabilities, such as providing information, technical consultation and regular product training for agents, and helping agents improve their sales and service capabilities;
Maintain a stable long-term cooperative relationship between upstream service providers and agents. Increase support and resource support for some agents with good performance, strong market expansion ability and high loyalty, and actively implement the upstream service provider policy to help them become bigger and stronger.
From scratch, from small to large, in recent years, a number of network channel enterprises have risen rapidly and become one of the key forces that determine the fate of portal competition. It is changing the living environment of small and medium-sized enterprises in urgent need of information and affecting the marketing model of the network service market. "Those who get the channel get the world", the marketing network construction of portals or service providers and the relationship with channel enterprises are about to face brand-new adjustment and integration.
Source: marketing discussion